How to play
Pai Gow Poker is played with a 52-card deck plus one joker. It’s a slow, friendly game: about four hands in ten end in a push.
- Place a bet and press Deal. You and the dealer get seven cards each; the dealer’s stay face down.
- Split your cards into two hands by tapping them:
- a five-card hand (the high hand), ranked like normal poker
- a two-card hand (the low hand), where only pairs and high cards count
- Your five-card hand must beat your two-card hand. For example, you can’t put a pair in the two-card hand and leave no pair in the five-card hand.
- Press Set hands. The dealer splits their cards by the fixed “house way”, and each of your hands is compared with the dealer’s hand of the same size.
- Both your hands win: your bet pays 1:1, less a 5% commission.
- One wins, one loses: push, your bet is returned.
- Both lose: you lose your bet.
- Ties go to the dealer. If your hand is exactly equal to the dealer’s (a “copy”), the dealer wins that hand.
Not sure how to split? Press House way to arrange your cards the way the dealer would. You can still change them before you set your hands.
The joker. The joker counts as an Ace, or it can complete a straight, a flush or a straight flush. In a two-card hand it’s always an Ace.
Hand rankings. Five-card hands rank as in standard poker, with two differences: five Aces (four Aces and the joker) is the best hand, and A-2-3-4-5 is the second-highest straight, just below A-K-Q-J-10. Two-card hands rank pairs first (Aces highest), then high cards.
Strategy
The house way is a sensible default. Its main ideas are also the core of good play:
- No pair: keep your highest card in the five-card hand and put the next two highest in the two-card hand.
- One pair: keep the pair in the five-card hand and put your two highest other cards in the two-card hand.
- Two pairs: usually split them, higher pair in the five-card hand, lower pair in the two-card hand. With two small pairs (6s or lower) and an Ace, keep both pairs together and play the Ace in the two-card hand.
- Three pairs: put the highest pair in the two-card hand.
- Three of a kind: keep it together, except three Aces: put one Ace in the two-card hand.
- Full house: split it, three of a kind in the five-card hand and the pair in the two-card hand.
- Straight or flush: keep it, choosing the five cards that leave the best two-card hand. With two or more pairs as well, play the pairs instead.
- Four of a kind: keep 2s to 6s together. Split 7s and higher into two pairs, unless you also have another pair to play in the two-card hand.
- Five Aces: play a pair of Aces in the two-card hand, unless you also have another pair: then keep the five Aces and play that pair.
If you set every hand the house way, the dealer keeps about 2.5% of your bets over time (our simulation of 600,000 hands: 2.5% give or take 0.2%). Most of that is the 5% commission. About 29% of hands win, 30% lose and 41% push.
More poker against the dealer. Stud Showdown and Hold’em Duel are faster games with one decision per hand.
If you enjoy Pai Gow Poker, try Pai Gow Tiles or Pattern Bingo next.
